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I’ve read a lot of posts recently from people who are new to Internet Marketing, and who are asking for encouragement from others.  Some of them pretty desperate.

Nothing wrong with that.  We all need encouragement.

But they forced me to recall my early days in Internet Marketing.  I started out with bursting enthusiasm thinking this was going to be like falling off a log.  And a month or so later I was ready to throw in the towel.

So why didn’t I and why am I still here, 2 years later?

The ‘why didn’t I’ is the easiest to deal with – so let’s get that out of the way.  The reason I started in Internet Marketing was two-fold:

1. I wanted to free myself from being financially dependent on an employer.  The employer I was working for in 2001 went bust owing me a lot of money (which I’ve never been paid) and I wanted to ensure I’d never find myself in that situation again.
2. Because of the money I lost at that time (I was subsequently out of work for 9 months) my savings were gone.  Where I live you have to retire at 60 and I couldn’t see how I could recover my financial situation sufficiently to allow me to do that in the time I had left.  So I had to find some way of earning money in my own right.

In short:  I had no choice.  I had to make it (or something) work.

But there were plenty of times when I thought to myself that I’d have to find another way of making money because this Internet Marketing thing just wasn’t working, so how did I deal with those times?

I had two issues to deal with, really – although it wasn’t that clear to me at the time:

1. My own completely ridiculous expectations
2. My lack of knowledge about working online.

Success is all about mindset and your mindset is driven by expectations.  But those expectations have to be based on reality and what’s achievable.  Mine weren’t.

I was seeing so many of those emails and websites telling me that I could be making a 6-figure income overnight if I just followed this secret system that some guru was giving away for next to nothing, that I was believing them.

I’d bought into the hype.

It was only when I started talking to people who’d been in the business for some time that I began to get my head straight.  There were also a couple of incidents that I’ve written about before that exposed the hype and (in one case) straight un-truths for what they were, that finally made me break through.

Once I’d got my brain straightened out and set myself some reasonable expectations my entire demeanor changed.  I approached things completely differently and really began to enjoy working online and, more importantly, learning about this business.

Just the other day I saw a comment that struck a chord:

“… don’t worry about the results.  Just keep doing the work and the results will come …”

Of course, you shouldn’t take that too literally!  You do need to look at the results you’re getting so you know how to adjust and improve what you’re doing.

But the principle of putting focus on learning how this business works and putting in the work is right.

So how would I respond to some of those requests for encouragement?

1. Recognise that this is a business which is getting ever more sophisticated.
2. Set yourself reasonable expectations based on your level of knowledge and experience in this business.
3. Set yourself realistic, short term (weekly or monthly), achievable goals.  Don’t make them based around money earned (results) – make them based around your knowledge and skills, because those are what empower you.  What do you want to master this month?  What new skills do you need to learn?  What are your weak areas that you need to strengthen?  Really teach yourself the business.
4. Measure your achievements against your short term goals.  For me, the feeling of accomplishment and empowerment I get from mastering a new technique or technology is a real buzz.  And I know that each new skill I learn is giving me another tool in my armoury for this business.
5. Make sure you have a mindset that says: ‘Failure is not an option’

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